"The X-President"

The X-President (Philip Baruth)

Is there anything more frustrating than a book with a good idea that has no idea what to do with it? That's the case with this novel, based around the idea that Bill Clinton - through no fault of his own - sets in motion a chain of events that leads the world to unite against America, and his biographer is recruited to go back in time and steer him away from this path.
At least, that's what the back cover and reviews say. I got to page 80 (out of 369), and not only has our heroine not yet traveled back in time, she doesn't even know time travel is possible, having farted around for 80 pages getting nothing done. I could forgive how long this takes to get going if the writing was excellent, or if interesting things were happening, but neither of these is the case. The most egregious example, to me, is a clutch of pages wasted showing the heroine returning to her house that she's sublet and breaking up a party that her tenant's teenage daughter is throwing. What do we learn from this? That our heroine doesn't like having keg parties thrown in her house? Why should I care? Why are you showing me this? When is something exciting going to happen?
Urgh. Baruth either needs a more forceful editor, or to have more respect for his readers. This leaden brick is going right in the donation pile.

Grade: D-